The government will have to promote a good handful of laws and major reforms in the coming months to continue to benefit from European funding, in a Congress fractured after the withdrawal of Junts from the investiture bloc. Among the most urgent are the social services law, the family law or tax reform, essential to receive the entire fifth disbursement. But also, the Industry law, the creation of an authority for the defense of financial customers, the Cinema law, the regulation of sports professionals, the Land law and the package of justice efficiency measures, await their turn in the Lower House. Several of them have not even been – for the moment – approved by the Council of Ministers, and it is not excluded that they will be promoted through thehello support processed jointly with the Budget project, which serves as a catch-all to validate current or unpopular initiatives.
The stages and objectives set as part of the recovery plan are now encountering parliamentary instability. Spain risk of receiving a partial payment of the 7.6 billion euros corresponding to the fifth tranche of the New generationif it fails to deal in time with two initiatives about which there is still no news. The Treasury refuses to undertake the tax reform that Brussels is demanding, and for which Montero ordered the preparation of a white paper which remains in the drawer of the first vice-president. The group of experts, led by Jesús Ruiz-Huerta, carried out an in-depth analysis and sent the Executive a catalog of recommendations, including a simplification of VAT, a reform of personal income tax , the creation of green taxes or the integration of a minimum state rate for inheritances and donations. However, despite the report, Moncloa highlighted the creation of temporary taxes on banks, energy and large fortunes, to consider the step “accomplished”. However, those of Ursula von der Leyen demand a text which integrates expert advice, and that the Treasury remains underdeveloped.
To this is added the the law on social services, abandoned for more than a year and a half following the early elections of 23-J. The last text was approved by the Council of Ministers in January 2023, with Ione Belarra at the head of Social Rights, but it declined with the dissolution of the Cortes approved five months later. Since then, the current minister – Pablo Bustinduy – has not taken over, although this is one of the necessary steps to collect the fifth tranche of the budget. NextGen. The standard must establish common minimums for States in terms of social services, reduce barriers to access to social protection and facilitate territorial mobility. Its treatment seems very complicated. The text presents regulations that conflict with the powers of the CCAA. The nationalist and independence parties have already warned that they will vote against the law if it is finally debated.
More advanced is the Family law. The rule is in the midst of a modification period, whose extension period expires tomorrow, and which the Executive could use to extend paternity leave from 16 to 20 weeks. Congress should vote on the text before 2025. Everything will depend on the pace of work of the Commission, after two years of parliamentary work.
4 billion additional at stake
On the government’s horizon is the series of steps that require the receipt of the sixth tranche of European funds, of 4 billion euros. To obtain full payment, Moncloa must accelerate the processing of the Cinema Law, which was presented to Congress in June through the emergency procedure, or the creation of the Independent Administrative Authority of Defense of the Financial Clientin the modification phase. But also others more abandoned, such as the state regulation of sports professionals, or the industry law, which continues to be developed within the ministry headed by Jordi Hereu.
The European Commission is demanding a law that integrates two reforms. It calls on the one hand to develop an industrial boost strategy, and on the other hand for a waste policy and the deployment of the circular economy. The text could reach the Congress of Deputies next 2025, as one of the strategic initiatives that Moncloa could use to highlight the Spanish companies that dominate the community market. In addition, Hereu must assume the revenues listed at the beginning of September by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. The document calls for placing energy at the heart of the future law and demands that community partners develop a proposal to decarbonize all policies developed in the European Union. To achieve this – underlines the analysis – “a minimum additional annual investment of between 750,000 and 800,000 million euros” will be necessary, according to the latest estimates from the European Commission, “which corresponds to between 4.4 and 4. 7% of EU GDP. in 2023.
The land law, with which Moncloa intended to reach the milestone required to regulate urban rehabilitation, has fewer possibilities. The text does not have a sufficient number of votes to be approved. This already happened months ago when the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, was forced to withdraw him from treatment. Shortly after, the PSOE recorded a new version in collaboration with the PNV, which was also not favored by Sumar.
